Thursday, 19 March 2009

Now is the Golden Age of Liberty- Rafael Behr

How much more freedom could we possibly have? Or, for that matter, how much more privacy? Our neighbours don't grass on us, they don't even know our names. You may feature somewhere as a number in a government database; you used to appear on carbon-paper duplicates in government filing cabinets. Before that, your ancestors were scratchily transcribed entries in leather-bound ledgers. So what? No one in government gives a monkey's who you are or what you're thinking. Whitehall knows less about you than Tesco. The Home Office holds the same data on you as you gave to Ryanair last time you booked a flight.

We are so atomised and anonymous that hundreds of thousands of us routinely invade our own privacy online, in search of recognition, to reinforce our identities, to find a voice. We post intimate details of our sexual preferences and political views on YouTube. No one cares. We are bits of cultural flotsam on a vast ocean of liberty.

Does he mean that people are not particularly cautious with their privacy? That they wander around with mobile phones, not realising that Vodafone is keeping a record of their movements? That they add "Retarded Facebook Application" to their page, then send it to all of their friends just in order to be told that their IQ is (allegedly) over 150? That they use Gmail even though Google has told them that their emails will be read for marketing purposes?

Yes, some people are stupid. Why should the rest of us have to suffer for it?

Like the chap who chalked "Are we free?" on the pavement.It took 4 brave plod to arrest him.It is for reasons such as this they were in line for the JUBILLEE MEDAL & threw teddy outt da pram when told it was juts for soldiers.Ho hum.Still the sheeple live in a police state.Roll on G20!

He's got a point - fair play, be vigilant about ID cards, data sharing, medical records etc but let's not keep whinging about knucklehead shite. It's a proper liberal time to be alive and the stazi are in their bunker. The MSM are dying, the hacks are whinging, etc etc.

I've never bought the 'if you've got nowt to hide' shit - if you have got something to hide - don't fucking advertise it or do what they did in the 50's - fucking supress it. Just because people want to do stuff should in no way mean they shouldn't restrain their disgusting, perverted shite.

ime not a libertarian in the sense of undoing the idea of a civilised society completely, i dont think it would work, but to give guido his credit , it was the shock of realising just how much this government want to know everything about what you do and where you go so that they can control you more and call it "good" .

it was the creepy sort of big brother fear , "we know what you are doing" disguised as being a better control of criminality , but did in fact give the government more ability to mind you , to vote for them . Add to that the missing figues , the secrative nature of having to ask for information , so that they know even what questions you are asking , and it its is clear it is nothing more than mind control.

this is a form of society collapse , no one is responsible , the state does not want you to know what it is doing , it doesnt even want you to think , that to me is a cultural dead end .

it must end because it is fake , it is balony , you can run your life in co operation , you dont need the subliminal fear , its a socialist con .

so three cheers to those who broke the creeping ice , and never let these decievers into power again, they have lied and wasted a national economy in with the deal .

O/T, but what has Guido done to his site? I can't read anything cos the background colour is dark, and the text is dark, and I can't click the comments button. It's okay on the lap top, which I rarely use, but on my phone it's just impossible. Any suggestions? I use Opera Mini 4.2 as my phone browser.

The problem with all state infomation gathering is that it can and will be abused by those in power with control over said information.

If you slip into a totalitaruian police state -it WILL be abused and used to murder and pick out and control political opponants.

They could soon learn who you vote for, who your friends are, religion, how much money you have, what illnesses you have, what busines deals you have comming up.

Separately the information is not too big a threat, but a universal goverment hub and they can control and spy on EVERYONE, including opposition parties and commercial deals and with so many obscure laws it is certain they could pull up 90% of the country on something if they tried hard enough!

You will be owned! it will be a product of terror.

If this goverment has taught us anything, it has taught us that it cannot be trusted with our liberties.

use of Infomation is supreme power and control for those who hold it, abuse of infomation is death camps.

Death camps and corruption, would you seriously tell me if the Labour party could use a super information spy network they wouldn't us it on the conservatives to undermine them in anyway possible and worse?

Think of Nixon on communist steroids!

Who was the Conservative they sent the police after? now imagine if they could do all this from their little hub with the help of their cabal of communist purpose graduate subversives, chosen for this particualr task and loyalty to the communist cause.

Yeah you're right, they wouldn't need asking twice!

Blackmail, bribery, is already bad enough, now imagine if it were ramped up by 1000x

Personally, I think we're already lost as a nation and no election can make 'it' better. That doesn't mean I won't vote for a Libertarian candidate in my area (London). It just means I think there might be problems in the offing.

I don't buy travel from the Home Office. CCTV cameras don't stop me getting mugged. I don't want a bent NHS cleaner far away to be able to access my medical records. I don't want my information being left on a train.

Tesco knows me and I know them. I can choose to pay a different supermarket, can I choose to pay a different Government?

If no one in Government gives a monkeys about who I am and what I am doing then they don't need to collect information on me. The State has become a hoarder - collecting vast swathes of data as it cannot take the risk of discarding something that may be useful at a later date.

We are not free men. We became numbers long ago. Rafael Behr's idea of liberty is not mine. He believes we have never been more free. Can I withdraw sizeable sums of cash from a bank without questions being asked? We have never been more supervised in our lives. We are as free as toddlers at a nursery.

This is not quite an Orwellian Big Brother but it is not freedom either. Behr seems to believe if we are not being stamped on by a jackboot or herded into a gas chamber then we must be free. Life is rarely so black and white.

Goodnight Vienna said... Personally, I think we're already lost as a nation and no election can make 'it' better. That doesn't mean I won't vote for a Libertarian candidate in my area (London). It just means I think there might be problems in the offing.

19 March 2009 19:39

There will be if you throw away your vote like that!

Vote UKIP or BNP, someone who at least has a small chance of challenging the police state.

well yes if the libertaian answer is some sort of more direct form of democracy , you may end up with tin pot councils and a loss of national law .

have they left it too late ??, in the sense that they are following in the wake of labour then yes, you cant have libertarian shape on the back of a socialist monster. it would be in conflict , because you could not do what you want within massive state control.

even worse is now that the economy is buggered , gordon would like you to think that socialist/marxist state control is the solution to get us out of it.

"let us unite pull together , we are all in it and with a common purpose"etc etc again totally denying it his own policy decisions that put the UK in this position.

the "it was nae me" position is so that he can fool the electorate into thinking labour have been the victim of events , when the truth is they have been the vice of events. trying to crush the people into a fake choice with an iron hand of destiny.

i mean if its so rosie , why is he not forthcomming with the future beauty of it all??.

"you will have this and when you have your Id card you will have this and this and it will be good"

except that you wont decide wether you want this or this , you will either be the right sort of citizen or not .

"The Libertarians have left it far too late and have no real support."

No we haven't you fucking nimrod. we saw this coming years ago and prepared. We are our own men/women. We do not need saving from anything because we are already free. we come here to rant because it is fun, not because we are shitting ourselves and need some bald headed political hero.

You people are a joke. A good one, I'll readily admit, but a joke none the less. But keep it up. The world will always need laughter

To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is it's justice; that is its morality.